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Whether you're looking for your next job or your next promotion,
you have an idea of what you'd like to be paid. But is the figure
you're thinking of realistic? These tools will help you know
exactly what you're worth, based on your experience, skills, and
location.

While they're not exact, salary calculators can give you an idea
of what a particular role is paid in your city or another
geographic area. When searching for jobs online, you can use this
number against job descriptions and rule out any that fall far
below it.

Keep in mind that your actual pay depends on your specific
skills, the geography, the role's responsibilities, what the
company can afford to pay, and sometimes, how much the company
values the role.

PayScale.com is a
popular tool that takes information about you (your job
experience, where you graduated from college, etc) to determine
a targeted salary range for the position you're researching.

Salary.com provides
a comprehensive list of any and every position in a field, as
well as required skills and salary details. You can compare
different levels of a role (such as Accountant I, II, and III)
to see where your skills position you.

Salary Seeking Suggestions: You can
use these salary calculators for a variety of research. If you're
interested in starting a new career, they're great tools to help
you know which jobs fit what you're looking for financially. If
you are angling for a raise, calculators can help show you what
others are making, which helps build your case for a raise to
your boss. If you're on the job hunt, you can see where to start
with salary negotiations.

You can perform your search based on your position and location
to find out what the actual companies in your area are paying as
reported by previous and current employees. The site also
provides information on the bonuses paid at a given company.

This is a great resource to arm yourself with before going into
an interview where you'll have to discuss your salary
requirements.

Salary Seeking Suggestions: If
you're looking at a role at a particular company, this site will
help you find out exactly what the employer is paying for the
role for which you're applying, putting you in a better
negotiating position.

Who better to ask what you're worth than job recruiters who know
your industry inside and out? An industry-specific recruiter can
quickly assess your experience and let you know the typical going
rates for a given role.

Recruiters can also give you an idea of what other forms of
compensation are typical in the industry and what you should
expect if you were to make a change. Consider working with a
recruiter as a long-term partnership. While he may not have the
perfect position for you as soon as you are looking, he is
someone who can arm you with information and ideas to help
progress your career.

Salary Seeking
Suggestions: Determine your minimum
acceptable salary requirement. In the event that the recruiter
gives you the feedback that you're aiming too high with what you
really want to be paid, you know you can safely apply for jobs
down to that number. You may need more experience than you've got
to command a higher salary at most companies. Just because a
friend got lucky and received a 20 percent increase when making a
change, doesn't mean that's the norm.